Secretary Perez
on the Road

Year of Action

In the past year, we've been busy...

Developing a skilled workforce

In the past year, we've invested $1 billion in job-driven training programs to give Americans the skills employers need. New grants promoting quality apprenticeships will enable more people to "earn and learn" while providing employers with highly-qualified workers. And we've made it easier to turn apprenticeship training into college credits.

Rewarding a hard day's work

Momentum is gathering to raise the federal minimum wage, and we'll continue to make the case that no one who works full time should live in poverty. To this end, we took action to extend minimum wage and overtime protections to about 2 million home health care workers. We also recovered nearly $250 million in back wages for underpaid workers in the last fiscal year alone.

Ensuring responsible use of taxpayer dollars

We're working on new rules to increase the minimum wage for workers under federal service contracts, and give more workers access to overtime pay. Also, to ensure that qualified veterans and people with disabilities have more meaningful opportunities to find, secure and keep good jobs, we updated important regulations.

Protecting workers from silent killers

We have completed a life-saving rule to limit miners' exposure to coal dust and move us closer to eliminating black lung disease, and we've taken the next steps toward protecting workers from inhaling high levels of crystalline silica.

Securing the rights of all families

We've updated our Family and Medical Leave Act guidance materials to make sure legally married, same-sex couples are not denied federal benefits. We also have proposed to change the definition of "spouse" so that FMLA protections would be based on the law of where the marriage took place.

“The basic bargain of America is that no matter who you are, where you come from
or what you look like, if you work hard & play by the rules, you can make it.”